Apple in extraordinary attack on Samsung's Android operating system ahead of Galaxy S4 launch

Phil Schiller, the second most powerful executive at Apple, has made an extraordinary attack on Google’s Android software just before Samsung – the biggest user of the software – launches its new Galaxy S4 smartphone.   

 Mr Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing and de facto number two, said that Google's own research showed the vast majority of Android users were stuck on older versions of the software, and that Samsung's new Galaxy S4 may itself be introduced with an out-of-date operating system that will need updating.

"With their own data, only 16 per cent of Android users are on year-old version of the operating system," he said. "More than 50pc are still on software that is two years old. A really big difference," he told Reuters.

Mr Schiller said the fragmentation - the number of versions of the Android operating system out in the marketplace - is in itself a problem, adding:

"And that extends to the news we are hearing this week that the Samsung Galaxy S 4 is being rumoured to ship with an OS that is nearly a year old," he said. "Customers will have to wait to get an update."

He continued: “When you take an Android device out of the box, you have to sign up to nine accounts with different vendors to get the experience iOS comes with. They don't work seamlessly together."